The Happiness Jar

Let me begin this post by saying that I love Elizabeth Gilbert. Her book Eat, Pray, Love helped me immensely when I was going through The Major Heartbreak by forcing me to take a good hard look at how ridiculous I was being, letting me snap out of my funk and learn to rebuild myself. It is one of my favorite books and a go-to present to my friends going through the same thing I went through. I am also currently reading her newest book Big Magic and I am savoring every word. 

So yes, I guess you can say that I am a fan. Her Facebook posts never fail to cheer me up because they always feel sincere and authentic, like they came from a real friend who you can call up any time you are down in the dumps. This being the new year and all, I was  inspired to start my own Happiness Jar like the one she mentioned in her most recent post, and I believe this would be a big help to everyone reading this so I am sharing it here.

The post is quite long so I suggest you visit the link to read it in its entirety, but I am sharing an excerpt below.

Every day, at the end of the day, I write down the happiest moment of my day, and I put it in the jar. It's that easy. It takes one minute — if that. I don't use fancy paper or special pens; I usually just rip off the corner of a bill, and jot down the happy moment somewhere on a blank spot and throw it in the jar. 

Done and done. 

There is no simpler or less-demanding spiritual practice in my life than this one — when I literally take note of my gratitude for a moment in my day when things felt good, or I felt lucky, or I merely remembered that I was alive. 

It's incredible how consistently tiny and insignificant these happy moments usually are. There don't tend to be rock star moments — moments of glory or huge success. They seem to be moments of tiny human connection, or an unexpected bit of humor, or the glimpse of a cardinal out of the corner of my eye, or moment of peace during a busy day.
My happiest moments are infinitesimally small, but over the years, they have caused this jar to overflow many times over 

When I say that happiness is a consequence of personal effort, this is kind of thing I'm talking about. I'm talking about showing up, paying attention to the instances of good fortune in your life, putting a spotlight on the small good things, and creating a body of evidence that you are (on ALL days) brushing up against grace. 

Look for it, and you'll find it.

Since I started just today, I decided to backtrack a little and write entries for January 1 and 2.

For January 1, I wrote that I'm thankful I got to spend the first day of 2016 with the people I hold most dear. After hearing the Mass and visiting my Kuya's grave, we went to my Aunt Jean's house in Malinta for a New Year feast. After that, Miah and I had our first datenight for the year. Hee.

For January 2, I wrote that I'm happy I got to nap. I napped after breakfast AND after lunch that I must have clocked in more than five hours of out-of-bedtime sleep!

Time is flying by so fast and I don't want to miss anything, so writing down these little reminders of things that made me happy is an excellent way of remembering beautiful memories to look back to when the year is over.

That Ball mason jar might not be enough for all the slips of paper, movie tickets, Instax photos, and little mementos I intend to keep though, so instead of a Happiness Jar I might use the giftbox Miah gave me this Christmas as a Happiness Box. Much better, yes?

Are you going to keep your own Happiness Jar, too? How about a Happiness Jar Support Group? ♥